New York to Raise Minimum Wage to $15 for Fast Food Workers

New York State Wage Board recommended on July 22, 2015 for an increase in the minimum wage paid to workers at fast-food chains to $15 per hour by 2018 in New York City and all of New York state by 2021. The state labor commissioner is expected to issue a wage order enacting that plan. The wage board action marks the first statewide adoption of a $15 minimum wage for workers across an entire industry, and a monumental victory for the Fight for $15 movement which began less than three years ago in New York City.

An estimated 136,000 fast-food workers statewide would receive hourly pay raises under the plan. The median hourly wage for New York’s fast-food workers was $9.03 in 2014.